Uganda posed both a challenge and a great opportunity for the members of the Vocational Training Team (VTT) lead by District 7390’s PDG (and optometrist) Connie Spark of York East RC. The opportunity was to teach and expand the knowledge and skills of doctors and students at Entebbe Hospital in Nkuma, near Lake Victoria. The challenge was to meet the health needs of as many residents as possible during the 10-day mission.
PDG Spark put together an international medical team from the U.S., Brazil, and Den-mark. The mission consisted of three parts: Train, Sustain, and Teach: Train doctors, Sustain the practices and enable them to Teach others. This concept is integral to the VTT concept and will result in continued health care after the team has departed. The mission provided treatment in vision care, dental procedures, women’s health, and pediatrics, malaria prevention, as well as general health. Physicians on the team spent their morn-ings training local personnel to carry on the medical work after the team was gone. Meanwhile, local Rotarians and Rotaractors got the word out that free medical and vision services were available in the afternoons. And patients came by the thousands!The vision team worked tirelessly to screen hundreds of patients and provide the correct vision care and glasses. Demand was strong; most locals have never seen an eye doctor nor had their vision tested. In conjunction with the Association for Albinism, Dr. Robert McClenathan and his team treated many young people with albinism for low vision, skin conditions and other related issues. It is thought that body parts of albino Africans are good luck, and as a result, these people are often attacked.
Meanwhile, the nine-member dental team brought a full new operatory of equipment including a digital X-ray and autoclave, thanks to the amazing generosity of the Dentsply Corporation.
“After each lecture we gave a live demonstra-tion of the procedure that was taught and then supervised the students in the clinic practicing what they just learned,” Dr. Dave Zelley said. “The students were highly enthu-siastic and will fill the need for dental care professionals. It is much better to teach and in that way provide care to thousands of pa-tients for decades to come.”
One component of the Uganda mission wasto disburse 12,000 malaria nets in remote villages. After a ferry ridge across Lake Victo-ria and a trip across red clay roads, the medical team found a comatose elderly woman and transported her back to Nkuma where she received the treatment she needed to recover from malaria, the leading cause of illness in this African region.
PDG Connie notes, “This $140,000 mission will bear fruit for years in the future. The health care workers we trained will con-tinue to practice their new techniques in this growing nation.“